


One Night In Berlin

by Fire_Sign



Series: The World War II Tales [1]
Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 14:54:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11694018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fire_Sign/pseuds/Fire_Sign
Summary: Lance Corporal Jack Robinson risks a mission for the sake of a pretty blonde. Eddie Finn thinks the man might just be mad.





	One Night In Berlin

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my contribution to the August trope challenge. ([tumblr link here](http://firesign23.tumblr.com/post/163670696618/mfmm-year-of-tropes-august-challenge)). This trope was a bit of a challenge, but the idea pleased me immensely.

Eddie Finn watched the pub from beneath the brim of his hat, taking a long sip from his drink. It was beer, ostensibly, but it tasted more like piss. His commanding officer was beside him, fingers fiddling with a cigarette packet. Their informant was supposed to have been there twenty minutes ago. The door to the pub opened, letting in a blast of cold winter air, and a woman. 

Beside him, Jack Robinson crumpled the cigarette packet. Not their contact then. Eddie watched her anyway; it was good practice. She was pretty; elegant in bearing but cheaply dressed—a higher class of working woman than Eddie had known back home in Sydney, but still one. Her blonde hair curled charmingly, and the red dress she wore was enough to draw every male eye in the room. No, not pretty. _Magnetic_. Even Jack Robinson, who was quite possibly the most dour soldier Eddie had ever met—he’d heard rumours the man was married, but he couldn’t bring himself to believe it—was watching her.

The woman surveyed the room coolly, before heading towards the German officer Eddie and Jack had been trying to hide from all evening. Heinrich Kugler had a reputation for dark tastes and a nasty temper. And a penchant for blondes. Beside him, Lance Corporal Robinson muttered a curse.

They couldn’t intervene; if their informant wasn’t so important they’d have slunk off an hour ago and hoped to make contact another night. Kugler was not a man they wanted to risk crossing paths with. 

Within ten minutes the woman had wrapped the officer around her finger, coy smiles and touches drawing him in. Jack’s attention had shifted from the door to the woman, and when she stood to leave he seemed to make a decision.

“Change of plans,” he muttered in German, ducking his head towards Eddie. “Follow her.”

“Sir—”

“No argument,” he said. “Don’t let her out of your sight.”

“What about—”

“It’s an order, officer,” Jack said firmly. Eddie vaguely remembered the man was a policeman back home, and used to wielding authority.

The woman and the officer left, and Eddie followed them as soon as was possible. In the cold German evening the woman stumbled, laughing as Kugler caught her. Eddie followed them as ordered, but compromising an exchange to protect a woman… he couldn’t help but wonder if his CO had lost his mind. 

After nearly ten minutes of trailing the couple at a safe distance, Eddie stay the woman stumble again, drawing Kugler into a narrow alley. There was a sound of scuffling, and Eddie reached for his gun instinctively as he closed the small distance.

Whatever he expected to find in the alley, it wasn’t what he found. 

The woman stood over Kugler, a golden gun glinting in the moonlight. She reached up with her other hand to fix her hair—it was a wig, he realised—and sighed. 

“Heinrich,” she said, speaking in flawless German, “You really ought to have been a better gentleman.”

“I seem to recall that wasn’t always your preference,” came another voice, from further in the alley. It only took Eddie a minute to realise that it was Jack Robinson.

His superior officer stepped into the light, his own gun cocked on Kugler but his attention on the woman.

“I wasn’t aware you were in town,” he said conversationally.

“Just arrived,” the woman replied. “I do hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

“Nothing that couldn’t be rearranged, Miss Fisher. It worked out well.”

“It usually does, Jack. I don’t suppose you have restraints to hand? This dress is stunning, but finding a place for Darbies…”

The lance corporal laughed, a sound Eddie hadn’t heard in the six months they’d worked together, and reached into the pocket of his coat to extract a pair of handcuffs. 

“Please tell me you have some plans beyond marching a senior German officer through Berlin in restraints.”

“I thought I’d take a taxi,” the woman quipped as she bent down to place Kugler in handcuffs. “Really, darling, I’m not completely mad.”

“Only mostly,” Jack replied, the expression on his face excessively fond. It startled Eddie to see his stoic officer so clearly besotted, and by a woman who evidently felt the same. “Finn, if you’d watch Mr. Kugler for a moment?”

Eddie kept his gun on the German, but half of his attention on the woman and Jack. She stepped very close and they had a hurried, whispered conversation, swaying towards each other as they spoke. When they broke apart, Jack turned to Eddie.

“Finn, you’ll accompany Miss Fisher through this alley and wait for her ride. When it’s arrived, I want you back at the pub. I can only hope we didn’t miss our informant in this chaos.”

And with that, Jack nodded to the woman and walked out of the alley. Eddie watched him go, confused beyond reason. The woman seemed to notice, because she smiled.

“Don’t mind Jack,” she said. “He’s always toughest on the ones with potential.”

Warmth blossomed in Eddie’s chest at the thought he was seen to have potential, but it didn’t explain… well, anything that had happened that night. The woman nudged Kugler with her foot.

“Help him up,” she said. “We have three minutes until pickup.”

Eddie did as directed, and between the two of them managed to get Kugler down the alley in time to meet the motorcar. When the door was closed behind him, the woman turned and smiled at Eddie again.

“Thank you… I’m afraid I didn’t catch your name.”

“Eddie Finn, ma’am.”

“Pleased to meet you, Eddie,” the woman said, actually holding her hand out to shake. “Will you do me a favour?”

“Perhaps, miss.”

The woman smiled, a smile that told Eddie she knew quite a bit that he did not. “Keep an eye on my husband for me, please.”

“Your… _Lance Corporal Robinson_?”

The woman nodded.

“Jack’s a darling, obviously, but as you can tell he does _occasionally_ have a saviour complex.”

Eddie stared, mouth slightly agape.

“You… he…” he struggled to put this information together. The woman was clearly mad. “You _kidnapped a German officer_ without any way of subduing him.”

The woman shrugged.

“I knew Jack would have my back,” she said, to which Eddie could only stare again. “He has a remarkable habit of showing up when I might need him.”

And with that the woman waved her fingers in farewell and climbed into the car. Eddie watched it drive away, then shook his head. He had absolutely no idea what had just happened, and a suspicion he’d like to keep it that way. He had a job to get back to. 


End file.
